Fresh calls have been made for a Glasgow-wide transport smartcard after the city’s transport system integrated “for one afternoon” due to the suspension of subway services.
Subway users faced a day of major disruption on Monday after the underground network was forced to suspend services three times due to “a major signalling fault”.
Trains first ground to a halt around 6:25am on Monday morning, with services reinstated on the Outer Line around 30 minutes later.
However, at around 8:50am, services on both circles were once again suspended before being reinstated an hour later, before services were once again suspended just prior to midday, and remained suspended for the remainder of Monday.
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Glasgow Subway then advised travellers via Twitter that valid Subway tickets and smartcards were being accepted by ScotRail for travel between Partick and the city centre and on First Bus services while both Subway circles were suspended.
The confirmation that Subway tickets and smartcards would be accepted on ScotRail and First Bus services prompted activist Coll McCail to highlight how the Subway closure had effectively “integrated public transport” in Glasgow “for one afternoon only”.
They tweeted: “So, for 1 afternoon only, Glasgow has integrated public transport — and it’s because the subway is broken. Imagine if we had decision makers who cared to ensure public infrastructure ran in the interest of people, not profit.
“On days like today, this can be done at the flick of a switch but Glasgow City Council etc expect us to believe that it would be an impossible task to pull of permanently. Astonishing.”
So, for 1 afternoon only, Glasgow has integrated public transport — and it’s because the subway is broken.
— Coll McCail (@MccailColl) January 9, 2023
Imagine if we had decision makers who cared to ensure public infrastructure ran in the interest of people, not profit. https://t.co/gUyXJfkdiE
Commenting on the incident, Friends of the Earth Scotland said it served to once again highlight the “inaccurate” claims made during COP26 that a Glasgow-wide public transport smartcard “was not possible for residents”.
All registered participants at the summit were issued with a smartcard, which gave them free access to public transport to complete their journeys from their accommodation to the host venue, Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus (SEC), for the duration of the conference.
Travellers can purchase a ZoneCard, a flexible season ticket for unlimited travel by ScotRail, Subway, most bus services and some ferries in the Strathclyde region. However, unlike London’s Oyster card, the ZoneCard is not an integrated “smart” ticketing system, and doesn’t cover each and every service in the city.
Gavin Thomson, transport campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “We urgently need to move as many journeys as possible from cars to sustainable transport. Making sure our public transport is cheap, easy-to-use, accessible and reliable is essential to addressing climate change and tackling air pollution in Glasgow and Scotland.
“We now know that it is possible to have a ticket that works across different modes of transport, so what’s stopping it from happening?”
Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney added: “It’s beyond parody that the only time Glasgow has a functioning integrated public transport network is when large swathes of the network aren’t working and there is no choice but to allow tickets for one mode of transport to be accepted on others.
"I have long argued for a tap in, tap out style system with one travel card accepted across the railway, bus and subway networks, yet despite promise after promise it has never materialised. We all know it is possible, and this latest exercise proves that to be the case. Every day it is not implemented as a permanent solution is another day where Glaswegians are let down and subjected to an unnecessarily complicated ticketing system. That needs to change.”
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In response, a spokesperson for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) said: “Reciprocal arrangements between operators, when one operator is unable to run services, is standard practice in public transport and is designed to help passengers complete their journey if their preferred mode of transport is unavailable. The arrangement is activated as part of a contingency plan to assist passengers. This is very different to a fully integrated public ticketing system, with all of the agreed commercial arrangements in place.”
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson added: “Our Transport Strategy sets out the council’s aspiration to achieve world-class public transport for Glasgow, and for the system to be integrated and accessible to encourage greater patronage and a reduced reliance on the car.
“Whilst we do not control the function of integrated ticketing, through our transport strategy we strive to influence and shape its provision across the region by encouraging and supporting transport partners to enhance the availability of flexible, integrated and affordable smart ticketing and payments within Glasgow’s wider public transport system.”
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